The Nelson Touch

Ark Royal, Book 2

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Ark Royal - the Royal Navy’s outdated space carrier - has won a smashing victory against the enigmatic aliens, capturing one of their starships and returning to Earth. Now, Admiral Theodore Smith and his crew are assigned to command a fleet charged with making a deep-penetration raid into alien territory, a fleet made up of carriers from four different nations. But with a crewman who isn't what he seems, untested pilots and international friction - and a new and dangerous alien plan - can Ted and his crew survive their mission...or will they die, alone and unremarked, hundreds of light years from home?

©2014 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great for naval history buffs who like sci-go

As a fan of the Aubrey-Maturin books AND sci-fi, this was a pleasant mix. The narrator was good, but could have varied the voices a little more. It was enough to tell who was speaking, but it was more like being read to by a parent as opposed to a professional narrator.

Good characters, too much battle details

What did you love best about The Nelson Touch?

How do you deal with an alien race that makes war on you but won't talk to you? Looking for motivation and trying to figure out what they'll do next is really difficult in that situation. How do they think? What do they want? Could we ever find peace with them? The aliens are smart enough to learn from their experiences with humans, but refuse to communicate in any way other than battle.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The fleet Admiral is a flawed man, a recovering alcoholic thrust into the public eye and given greater power and responsibility than he had ever dreamed of. I prefer characters with depth and contradictions who are basically good people.

Which scene was your favorite?

I have no favorite scene, but several that I didn't like. The characters and basic story line interested me enough to buy this book after reading the first. What I had forgotten is that this author goes into deep detail with each battle. Long, long detail about tactics and other minutia that I am not interested in. Many people do like that in a story, I don't. I'm more interested in the characters and the plot line. I enjoy Larry Niven's books, including ones written with Jerry Pournell. I find the ones written by JP alone to be too battle heavy for my taste. That's how this book was to me (and the first one too, but I had forgotten about that when I bought this book).

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Any additional comments?

The narration is excellent and allowed me to continue slogging through the parts I found so very tedious.

A great follow-up story!

Sometime, the worst book in a series is the second. That's not the case with this one!

Stop with this book

I liked the first story and thought I would like the second but although it was interesting the story was just too repetitive. I am not even going to read book three because I don't think I could stand hearing the same details over and over and over again. Just read reviews for third book and save yourself a credit.

Earth has been sttacjed!

After Ark Riyal's International Task force barely Survives their battles withe aliens they tetuf. yo a devastated Earth and all the other solar system colonies its time to start another misdion to try and make contact withe aliens Prince Harry is still alive!

Decent battles, repetitive and sometimes incorrect vocabulary.

I'm not sure if the read actually accentuates the limited vocabulary. There are some real shocker. Sometimes it's just wrong - silly malapropism. Good space battles. OK if you're working on something else while reading - no need to concentrate.

The first one was better

This book was ok... I enjoyed the first book more...I thought that the story could have had more twists...

In the tradition of Horatio Hornblower

Great military SF for the purists out there!
Second in the series and can't wait to hear the third book which is downloading now.

good book

authors repeats himself to much. heard the same thing last chapter and last book but overall good

slower than prior books repeating themes

3 hrs of action with the rest filled with non sense characters that you don't care about. Hope the next is better.